What Makes a Monster
by zerxes96
Summary: What do you do when you're so deeply connected to the evil in the world you'd sworn to extinguish?
1. Chapter 1

**I had this story written a while ago but wasn't very confident in it, but I think it's ready to be published now.**

 **If not, I'll just update it as I see fit.**

 **YES! This is a crossover, but the main characters from The Secret Saturdays don't show up until Chapter 4 :'(**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

I was never one to believe in destiny. At least, not at first. Even after my battle with my jerk of an older self, I thought I was going straight. I hoped that what evil me said wasn't true.

 _I'm still here. I still exist. Which means you'll still turn into me._

According to future Vlad, I had lost my parents and friends, and the overload of negative emotions gave birth to Dark Danny.

However, here I was now, two years after the accident was supposed to happen, and all my loved ones were still here.

"What's the matter? Has it finally sunk in that you can't beat me, even at your own game?"

Speaking of Vlad: I'd almost forgotten I was in the middle of a fight with him. That "rematch" I was telling Sam and Tucker about a while ago. Tells you how into the battle I was.

"Sorry, were we in the middle of something? I got distracted," I said while looking at the movie theater directly below us.

I just hoped none of the civilians down below us got hurt because of my carelessness.

"By what, the movies?" Plasmius, who was initially a good twenty feet away from me, disappeared and reappeared directly in front of me.

"Then why don't you get a closer look?" He grabbed me by the shoulders and launched me into the theater parking lot with a purple ecto-blast.

"GHOST ALERT, GHOST ALERT. PLEASE PROCEED TO UNDERGROUND FACILITIES."

Vlad had installed Ghost Alert Systems into every public building in Amity Park. The ones in the movie theater attached to the mall had just picked up our presence. All the parking spots lowered about 5 feet and a kind of lid slid on top of them, keeping all the cars safe from our battle.

"Ho-ho! Cheap trick shots! Nice addition to your ghostly resume."

All the civilians that were outside rushed into the mall like moths to a porch light.

"You don't need a resume when you're as rich and powerful I am. Money and power that could be yours if you renounced your buffoon of a father."

One specific civilian caught my attention. She was a young girl in a blue hoodie and a red beanie and shorts. She looked to be around my age, but slightly younger. She was about how tall I was when I was 14. Not that I'm much taller now, maybe I gained an inch or two, but…you get the idea.

 _Danielle?_

She had disappeared just as suddenly as she came into my peripheral vision. And just as quickly as that, the two people I _didn't_ want to be here showed up.

"Hey, look, it's that Danny Phantom guy! And…" Dad's expression changed from joking to menacing. "The Wisconsin Ghost!"

"Alright, Daniel, this has gone on long enough!" Vlad raised his hand and a very small yet very potent flare of ectoplasm materialized in his palm.

He pointed it at me with barely a second left for me to say "STOP!"

Unfortunately, it was too late. I had turned invisible, but couldn't make in time to stop the ecto-blast from hitting my parents, or the movie theater, which was unaffected anyway thanks to the ecto-disturber metal of a shell around it.

"MOM! DAD!"

This was exactly what I was afraid of. I didn't want my carelessness to get anyone killed, especially those closest to me. Valerie. Sam. Tucker. Jazz. My parents. Losing them was the first step to 'Ragnarok'. Losing them in the alternate timeline was what made me become evil and destroy the world.

 _I'm still here. I still exist. Which means you'll still turn into me._

Was it my destiny to become evil? Had Clockwork and I failed in saving the future?

The engulfing blast of ectoplasm was too bright to see what exactly had happened, but when the metaphorical dust settled, Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found.

Vlad had realized all too late what had happened.

"Daniel?" For the first time in a long time, remorse echoed in his voice.

We were maybe a few feet from each other, but our minds had never been farther apart.

"This is all… _your_ … FAULT!" My hands drove into fists as ecto-energy started building up around them. My eyes started glowing. I bent back as if I were about to sneeze, and let out the most powerful Ghostly Wail I'd ever released.

The supersonic green waves sent Vlad back and into a pole at the opposite end of the parking lot. I could feel myself getting drained with each wave that left my mouth.

The next thing I knew, I was back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**I had this story written a while ago but wasn't very confident in it, but I think it's ready to be published now.**

 **If not, I'll just update it as I see fit.**

 **YES! This is a crossover, but the main characters from The Secret Saturdays don't show up until Chapter 4 :'(**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

I was in my living room studying for the history test, alone. Okay, not _really_ alone. There were a few other people in the room, but I didn't interact with any of them.

My phone started to ring. I'd gotten a text message. "Fenton-Meister! Dash and I are throwing a dance party. We were wondering if you wanted in. ~ Kwan."

Yeah, right. Like they'd ever invite me to hang out with them. They probably just needed something only I could get them, or were trying to trick me into embarrassment. I ignored the text and tried studying some more. History was first period. Since I was fighting ghosts all night every night, I'd always fall asleep in class, so I didn't know jack-squat about Nobunaga Oda, or even what year the Sengoku Period of Japan was. I doubted I'd even remember any of these names by test time in an hour.

Around half an hour later, Dash and Danielle showed up at the front door.

"Hey, Danny," exclaimed a happy Danielle.

"Oh, you're here," Dash continued. "We're throwing a party. You want in?"

"You don't really want me." I glanced over at Danielle. "You're only inviting me because _she_ said so."

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

I knew that was the case, but actually hearing him say it drove my hands into fists. "Well, you can forget it. I'm out of here."

I packed my things and walked out the door by myself. Or so I wished. Dash had walked out the study room with me.

"What's your problem," asked Dash.

"Quit following me!" I picked up the pace and ran into a maze of bookshelves.

I paced through the maze. For some reason, it felt like my life, my friends' and family's lives, depended on my outrunning Dash. A myriad of faint screams echoed through the array of wooden shelves. I could discern Sam's voice, and my dad's, which was kinda hard to miss.

Dash's footsteps grew louder, closer. "You can't hide forever! You can't avoid me." His voice got deeper with each word, more menacing.

The floor behind me started to break into pieces, falling down into nothingness.

My skin turned pale. My build started to look more like Dash's, like we were merging. I finally reached the glass door of the library, but fell back onto the ground when I saw my reflection. The haunted eyes that stared back and the dark circles underneath them made the long, drawn-in face almost unrecognizable. I waved my hand and the person waved back. It was me. My hair was a white blaze.

That was when the floor completely caved in and I fell through.

I landed on the floor of Vlad's mansion, with Plasmius looming over me.

"Plasmius," I started. "Figures you're behind this."

"For future reference: knock before entering someone's home, or you'll end up a carpet, as you are now."

I blasted him with a handful of ecto-energy, sending him flying up and into a drapery of himself. "For future reference: When you have the upper hand, don't let your guard down, or you'll end up a wall decoration as you are now."

"Ah, plagiarism. I see your comebacks still need improvement," said Vlad as he stood back up.

"Why did you follow me here," I pressed.

"Daniel, as much as I'd love to feed your ego, you are _not_ the only thing on my agenda. And as it so happens, I'm running a bit behind schedule, so if you could scurry along and torment some Box Ghost, that would be much appreciated."

"Why should I –"

Before I could finish my question, a sharp pain filled my chest, like my heart had turned metal and was trying to escape my rib cage any way it could. My vision faded to darkness. I don't remember how much time had passed, but after a while, my vision was restored, and I saw a familiar ghost. A teal-skinned man with fiery white hair. He wore a white jumpsuit with a black 'Y' shape stretched across the torso. In the center of the Y, the same stylized "D" that sported on mine.

"Hello, Danny."

"Danny? Danny? DANNY!"

That's when I woke up.

"WHAT?!" I did a single crunch that would've made Ms. Tetslaff proud, and was greeted with a soft _crack_. The wall and ceiling met on a diagonal only two feet above the bed, and my head had just rammed into it. "What?"

Jazz was sitting on the edge of my bed, my left hand sandwiched between hers. "You looked like you were having a nightmare."

I snatched it away and rubbed the back of my head.

"Yeah, you also made me hit my head on the ceiling," I snapped back. I'd been awake for maybe 5 minutes and I'd let out my second sigh that morning. _Great. Now my neck hurts._

We weren't in my room, so I couldn't call her a creep for watching me as I slept.

It took a few seconds of rolling my head around before my neck unstiffened a little. Then, the memories came rushing in. Jazz was right about the nightmare.

"Any other _astute_ observations?"

She shook her head in denial. There were tears streaming down her face. "You've been in a coma for the last two months."

"What?" I tried recalling what had happened before I woke up in this hospital bed. She was right about the nightmare. But before that, I was fighting Vlad. A bunch of civilians got involved and…

"Where's Mom and Dad? And Danielle?"

Jazz frowned. "Who's Danielle? And Mom and Dad, well, they're…"

"Oh Danny! You're awake at last! How are you feeling?" A tall yet skinny woman with dark blue hair walked up to us.

"Who's asking?"

"I'm Dr. Violet Baxter. You probably know my younger brother, Dash. I'm a nurse at this hospital."

I blinked.

 _Hospital?_

Violet was in a long white lab coat with the words "Zone 3 Hospital" written over her breast pocket.

The room itself had two beds opposite each other, with one large common dresser against the wall. There was another section of the room that had a shower and toilet. Beyond the door Violet was standing to the side of, there was a large general area with tables and sofas. The same words that were on Violet's lab coat were printed on the wall.

"Sorry," I started. "I just need some time to think. Can you come back later?"

Violet smiled. "Of course. Just come outside when you're ready."

The moment Violet closed the door behind her, Jazz barraged me with questions. "Danny, you don't look too good. It's gotta do with your nightmare, doesn't it? What was it about?"

 _Why did I tell her about the nightmare?_

I hated it when she could read me like one of her math books.

"Just let it go." I got out of bed too quickly and almost passed out as the blood rushed to my head. That didn't stop me from walking towards the dresser and looking into the mirror. Before me, I saw the abandoned shell of an adolescent who spent two years protecting his home from ghosts. The bags under my eyes had gotten darker. I ignored them and hoped Jazz hadn't noticed, or was able to do the same. Then again, if she _had_ noticed them, she would've said something.

There was a purple post-it note stuck to the side of the mirror. A small puddle formed at the edge of my left eye as I read it.

She'd known what was bothering me all along. She just wanted to hear me say it. First with my powers, and now with this. What other secrets of mine did she know but didn't tell me out of courtesy of my privacy?

I opened up the top drawer and grabbed my towel and a change of clothes, eager to leave the room, but stopped at the door and looked back at my sister. She'd been staring at me this whole time, concern written all over her face.

I also hated it when she's worried for all the right reasons. Then _I_ looked like the villain for… nevermind.

Sometimes at night, when she was almost positive I was asleep, I could hear sniffling from the other side of the bed for good ten minutes. Another ten minutes later, I'd turn to face her, and see a damp spot at the edge of the small curvature of pillow caressing her head. She was afraid one day, something would be the finishing blow: that my nightmares would snatch me away from her.

"I'm sorry, Jazz. I know you're just worried about me, and I'm grateful, but I still need breathing room." The sudden show of maturity surprised me just as much as it did Jazz with the face she put on. "I'm… gonna go talk to Violet after I shower."

"Oh… okay. Of course. Just… glad you know I'm here for you. And Valerie, too. And… anyway, you have friends. You're not alone."

"Mhm."

Jazz smiled, which, to be honest, only made me want to leave the room sooner rather than later.

I thought the smile was just out of pity, but realized when I looked into the bathroom mirror that it wasn't. It was a response to my own.


	3. Chapter 3

**YES! This is a crossover, but the main characters from The Secret Saturdays don't show up until next chapter (which will be posted shortly!) :'(**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

Apparently, it'd been two months since the nightmare of a battle, and I wish all of it was just that: a dream. That it was just one of Nocturn's sick jokes: not canon in this story of a 17-year-old boy with snow-white hair and glowing green eyes.

My fight with Vlad went local and there were civilian casualties; namely Mom and Dad, who were out watching 'Thor: Ragnarok' and were too stubborn to evacuate the area when the ghost alarms started blaring.

A couple weeks after that, the Guys in White started Area-51-ing Amity Park. Except they didn't call it Area 51. The map labels here as "Zone 3," now.

Why 3? Is there already a 1 and 2? The Guys in White have control over the media, so information is scarce.

"The frequency of disastrous events is rising at an unnerving rate; we can't afford leave the fate of the world to a bunch of super-powered insurgents. We need professionals," was their claim, though I doubt the Guys in White themselves knew what they were saying. The only sectors _they_ ever cared about were their bank accounts.

Anyway, I could've sworn I'd seen Danielle at the site, as well, but the records stated the only casualties were my two folks.

The beating sun was a foreign feeling to my skin. Not unpleasant, but still foreign. I wondered if that was what feeling drunk felt like to Undergrowth.

The only sources of light in our room were two windows, so I hadn't realized my skin had become so pale you'd mistaken even my human half for a ghost.

Jazz offered to drive me, but I declined, wanting to absorb all of it for myself.

The walk was a peaceful one, grass and trees everywhere, a fresh current of air. Then the skyscrapers took over, blocking out the sun and turning the wind cold.

The metropolis was nothing like Amity Park. The bank was integrated into the repair shop across the street, and there was a communication tower where the old bank once stood. All the trees that had adorned the water facility were cut down.

The grocery store was renovated, and had its name changed. It was maybe two blocks ago, but the sign was still engraved in my memory, azure backing and all. _Zone 3 Supermarket._

I'd been living in the hospital with Jazz for the past month, but my heart still called Casper Lakes home. Namely, the two-story brick apartment that proudly wore a slapdash sign for a tie and a UFO for a hat.

Fenton Works. It was the only building that was left unoccupied due to fear of ghost contamination. The only reason they didn't knock it down was to honor my parents. 'Tearing the building down was the equivalent of denying all the sweat and blood the Fentons put into ridding this world of ghosts.' Ironic, how dad only got the praise he'd wanted as a ghost hunter after he himself qualified to be a ghost.

Everything is so different, now. No parents, the Guys in White got better, not to mention I haven't even talked to Sam or Tucker in a month. I heard Tucker and Sam went their separate ways. I don't know what Sam is up to, but apparently Tucker started working _with_ the Guys in White, as did Kwan.

I wasn't complaining. I was glad the two of them were away from me. There were less chances of them getting hurt.

I took out my phone and checked the news, thumbing down the list of political news until I reached the Ghost Hunting section. Just because Team Phantom was no more doesn't mean I had to stop doing ghost patrol.

There wasn't anything new, aside from this one particular live stream that was going on about a scorpion ghost out in public.

 _Better than nothing._

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let the nostalgia take over. Two blue-white rings that were all too familiar to me formed around my waist and traveled in opposite directions, bread-crumbing a black jumpsuit and a stylized "D" on my chest.


	4. Chapter 4

**YES! The Saturdays show up in this chapter! ( briefly :'( ) Zak stays around for good in Chapter 7 :D**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

I called Jazz to let her know I'd be gone for a while longer. She wasn't buying it, so I told her I was fighting a ghost, and that calmed her down.

 _"Hey, I'm gonna be out later than I said." "No! It's dangerous at night!"_

 _"Hey, I'm gonna go pick a fight with an evil monster." "Tell me about it when you get back!"_

Sometimes, Jazz's logic made _no_ sense.

Speaking of evil monsters, I was expecting the ghost to be attacking the civilians, but it looked the other way around. A kid around my age with a hairdo straight out of an anime and an older, oddly-familiar-looking dude were rallying the poor thing around.

 _"Danny!"_ The faint voice was in my head. It was distorted, although that could've just been the wind in my ears. One thing for sure, it was a female voice. I'd already hung up the phone, so it wasn't Jazz. Didn't sound like her, anyways.

 _Telepathy?_

That was new. I was still hovering above the ghost, out of sight, so I assumed she was just looking for me from the start.

 _My reputation precedes me._

"Special delivery from _bee-hind_ ," I yelled as I swooped in from – you can fill in the rest.

The creature (I wasn't sure it _was_ a ghost, at that point) went flying into one of the trees, compliments of yours truly.

I flew over to the pair that were attacking it.

"'bee-hind'? Dude, the guy's a scorpion." The anime character shifted his onslaught to me.

Of course, I'd known that, but I didn't know any good scorpion puns, so I went with a bee one. "Really? Huh. I guess that explains the tail." I had a good comeback though, so I played dumb.

"Good to see you again, Fenton." It was that older guy. He looked like he could be some sort of super-soldier. He had the scar to back it up.

 _Oh, I've seen him before. At Lake Eerie._

When my dad and I went fishing at the fog-engulfed swamp known as Lake Eerie, there was a well-built man in an orange and black jump suit and black and white hair there. He had a pet lizard thing, which wasn't here today.

"Right back at you, I guess." I had to look at my hands to make sure I was still a ghost.

 _He knows me?_

"Let me show you how it's done!" the kid pulled out a…bamboo…sword…thing?

"Hey, purple-breath! You look a little _stung_ up. Too much _tail_? Try a bit of _claw_!"

The physical attack was almost as good as the verbal.

Purple-breath swung its tail and pushed the kid flying into a boulder, which conveniently was just within hearing range for me to taunt him.

"Should I be taking notes," I scoffed.

The creature's grunt was more scrapping than the voice I heard in my head earlier: more fitting of a scorpion, though that seemed to be the least of our concerns.

"Now boys, can't you two get along?" The super-soldier didn't seem to mind that I was tormenting whom he treated as his son.

The kid looked up at me and did a passive aggressive pout, which disgusted me surprisingly more than if it were Jazz that had done it. He turned to where the scorpion was, emphasis on _was_. "Wait, where's the Dingonek?"

Assuming Dingonek was the name of the saber-toothed scorpion, the kid was right. She had vanished into a purple portal, after all the effort she put into dragging me out.

"I beamed it back to Congo Basin while you two were chatting," answered the father.

"Aww, man! Well, that ends that _tail_."

I'll admit that one made me smirk. Only a little, though.

I took a second look at the dad, then turned to the kid. I knew the dad, kinda, but I'd never seen _him_ before. "Who are – _oh_ , you're the kid who let all those _things_ loose in NYC 4 months ago." I changed back into my human form, which didn't surprise the kid in the least.

"Cryptids, and that was technically Rani Nagi's fault. _You're_ the guy who let that weather spirit rampage across Earth!"

"Ghost, and that was technically Vlad's fault."

"I'm Zak." Zak swung his arm around me, and turned to his dad. "Yeah, I think we can get along."

My neck still hurt from that encounter with the ceiling.


	5. Chapter 5

**Zak's gone :'( Don't worry, he stays around for good in Chapter 7 :D**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

Even though the fight itself was brief, I hadn't felt that alert since Valerie and I fought Vlad together.

By the time I got back home, it was already dinner time. I tried talking to Jazz about the Bingo…neck… these cryptids needed easier names. Anyway, I told Jazz as much as I could about what went down without sparking Valerie's trademark glare, who was over visiting.

"I was at a _museum_ , and there's was this section on weird creatures. I think the _tour guide_ called them cryptids."

Valerie had a confused look as she filled her mouth with another spoonful of mac and cheese, meaning she knew we were talking code, but couldn't quite figure out what was actually being said, which was fine by me.

Jazz had a confused look, too. Thankfully, a nudge in Valerie's direction was all the explanation Jazz needed to realize I was talking in code. "Oh, yeah, cryptids! I did a paper on them last year. You're talking about things like the Chupacabra, right?"

"Yeah, chalupa baja. Remember that monster uprising in NYC a few months back? Those were all cryptids."

"What cryptid was the _tour guide_ talking about," Jazz asked.

"I don't remember the name, but I think he said it was from Congo Basin."

A beeping sound interrupted our productive conversation.

"Ghost alarm," said Valerie. "I thought I fixed the damned thing?"

She got up and went to her backpack at the foot of the stairs and took out her gauntlet shaped sensor. "There's a ghost here in Zone 3."

"This place is a ghost's worst nightmare, now," Jazz added. She shot me another glance, meaning we were both on the same page. The ghost was probably looking for me.

"Where is she now," I asked. Dinner had just gotten interesting.

"How do you know it's a she?"

"Uh – man's intuition," I stuttered back at Valerie. I actually didn't know for sure it was a girl ghost. But I hoped it was.

That remark won me skeptical glares from both Jazz and Valerie.

"Anyway, looks like she – it – the ghost – stopped at Wendy High for the night."

Wendy High was the twin high school to Casper High, for people from the other side of town.

"Maybe we should check it out. You know, better safe than sorry, right?" What if she was in trouble? It would be better to go to her than have her risk her life.

"I'm in," said Valerie as she materialized her anti-ghost suit. "I haven't had some actual exercise in ages!"

"Hey, Danny? Can I talk to you?" Jazz walked me to the door while Valerie packed her backpack. "Is it really okay to bring Valerie along? What if this ghost's a friendly, or knows your secret? This could be compromise both of you."

"Well, she is the one with the tracking gear. Anyway, relax. I've already thought everything through."

If I was right, I wouldn't be putting the ghost in danger by bringing Valerie along. I was hoping the ghost was a close friend. I was hoping it was Danielle.


	6. Chapter 6

**ZAK SATURDAY RETURNS NEXT CHAPTER :DDD**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

The three of us packed overnight bags just in case something happened and we had to camp out for the night. Although the school was only a 10-minute drive away from the hospital, we'd had enough experience to know that it was never just 'meet ghost, have tea, come home.'

It was pretty late, so all the janitors were probably at home.

If this were eight years ago, I'd have been strongly against this. I used to think all the teachers lived in the schools, and was death afraid of sneaking into school at night, fearing I would knock something over and the teachers would wake up and chase after me. Not that I'd ever wanted to spend more than the mandatory 8 hours in the sleep-inducing prisons we'd called Pearl Elementary, Louie Middle, and Casper High.

"So, how are we planning on getting in?" I couldn't just phase us through with Valerie there.

Valerie looked at her red-plated arm like she was checking the time, and something slid to the side, making way for a radar screen. "We don't have to. It's behind the school, on the track."

Valerie seemed to be taking this stakeout as seriously as she would any other ghost attack. I was starting to second guess bringing her along.

"Uh, Danny? Valerie?" Jazz shifted our attention to the sky. Something was falling. And it was heading straight for the back of the school. "Something tells me that's not an overnight bag."

I left Valerie and Jazz in the dust and ran as fast as I could to the track. _No, no, no, no, no!_

I jumped the fence and turned invisible, flying straight to the track, looking for the ghost that was about to be hit by a missile.

Sure enough, sleeping on the bleachers was a guy in a dark blue jump suit. He looked maybe a year or two older than me.

I raised my hand, trying not to lose my balance while running, and erected a ghost shield around him.

The missile grew closer; a familiar emblem was slapped its side: twin red zigzags hugging each other, each representing a symbol in the acronym "Z3" with a green halo at its center. I realized my ghost shield wasn't going to be enough. I flew to the sleeping ghost and overshadowed him, right after impact.

 _You can't die! I won't let you! I'm in control here. I order you to live!_

I didn't know what to think. The Guys in White had fired that missile. They had to have had a reason. They didn't attack me, so they weren't just cracking down on all ghosts. There was a method. Who was the good guy? Was there even a villain in this? If I had succeeded in saving her, would I have been a savior, or a criminal?

The body spit me out and turned into ectoplasm. _A clone? Is this a trap? Am I the target?_

The noise that I thought was my heart pounding was actually a helicopter flying away above us. I was still invisible, so it couldn't have known I was there. The helicopter must've been there to check on the ghost: to make sure the missile had done its job.

Jazz and Valerie busted the school doors open and ran up to me. They figured running straight through the school was faster than running around it.

"Danny! Are you okay? Where's the –," Mom looked to my side at the pile of ectoplasm. "Oh."

"I wasn't quick enough. The missile hit him, and he melted into ectoplasm."

"Danny…" Jazz extended her arm and helped me out of the bleacher.

I swatted it away.

"Hey, you two can head back home. I… need some time alone with my thoughts."

Thankfully, they understood.

"Just call if anything happens," said a concerned Jazz.

"I will."

After I was sure they'd been out of hearing distance, I took out my phone and headphones from my backpack.

The melody was something you'd find playing from a music box, each note triggering a flash of memory that I'd either longed to be repeated, or wished had never even happened, living up to its title. While it did soothe the waves of stress beaching up in my brain, it had me sometimes imagining I was roaming the hallways of a haunted building all alone. Other times I'd just be huddled up in a large cardboard box having an anxiety attack, but it at least translated the pain into something I was used to.

Around five minutes in, the wind started picking up, and it was starting to get cold. I couldn't lie there all night, but I still didn't have it in me to face Jazz and Valerie. I dialed the number I'd been given two days prior. "Hey, Mr. Saturday? It's Danny."


	7. Chapter 7

**ZAK SATURDAY RETURNS :DDD**

 **I hope you enjoy the read!**

 **Let me know in a review what you thought! What do you think will happen next? I crave them reviews and my heart jumps into my throat every time I get one :D**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

What looked to be their version of the Fenton Ops Center flew over us and two ropes dropped down. It was really high up, but you could tell by the shadow it cast that the thing was huge. It was way cooler than ours, too, and…orange. I was always more of a green and blue guy.

The moment I got on the ship, a giant, skinny gorilla came running towards us. When it saw me, it shifted gears from gorilla to jaguar and tackled me. My list of things that give me PTSD grew.

"Fisk, calm down! That's just Fenton. He's a friend."

"Abba ababu bwaaa!" Fisk made it clear that English wasn't his first, or _any_ of its languages.

"Ahhh!" Something lashed at my leg. Something I couldn't see. _A ghost?_

To my side, there was a ripple, like when you look off into the distance on a hot day and can see heat waves, except these moved and were almost salamander-shaped. The ripples weakened, and a Komodo Dragon materialized, hissing skeptically at me. _A half-ghost/half-animal?_

I'd known about Komodo Dragons. We learned about them in Mr. Lancer's science class. Either he forgot to mention that they were masters of disguise, or they weren't supposed to do that.

"I see you've met Fiskerton and Komodo," the super-soldier said. "I'm Solomon, by the way. You can call me Doc." Right after that short introduction, Doc walked away. _Great. The only normal one isn't much of a talker._ Zak and I started following him through the arced blue hallway.

"Are ghosts different from cryptids?" We'd been on the ship for maybe 2 minutes and Zak had already started bombarding me with questions.

I was still pissed off after being attacked by Zak's pets. _Why couldn't they have dogs, or cats, like normal people?_ "Look dude, I don't even know what a cryptid _is_. If they're not from the Ghost Zone, then yeah."

"Ghost Zone?"

"It's a dimension on the opposite plane of existence from ours." My patience grew thinner. Normally, I'd have been just fine talking about ghosts, and my powers, but something about getting mauled by a gorilla rubbed me the wrong way.

Zak sped up a bit and turned around to face me. "Like the one from the smoke mirror? Also, are you a human that goes ghost, or are you a ghost that goes human?"

At the end of the hallway was a command center. I wasn't in the mood to give a philosophy lesson, so I walked down around a mini dome-shaped section of the room and down a few steps to the top part of an arc-shaped section of floor. Sitting in command pods on the two ends of the arc were Doc and a woman with long white hair in an orange and black jumpsuit.

"Cryptids are the creatures of Earth that regular science hasn't discovered, yet. They're different from the ghosts you're used to," Doc said, having overheard our conversation.

"Wow, you know your stuff."

The woman grinned. "The Secret Scientists research everything out of the ordinary. That includes chimeras, and aliens. I'm Zak's mom, Drew, by the way. Nice to officially meet you, Danny."

 _Scientists. Well, that explains the jumpsuits._ "Nice to meet you, too." The way Drew Saturday introduced herself meant I'd probably seen her before, or at least she'd seen me. "Aliens? Like from outer space?"

Zak butted in, again. Why he thought the two us would get along, I did not know. "Yeah! There's even a guy that can turn into like, a hundred different kinds of them. I'm surprised you've never heard of him. He's all over the news." I think Zak caught on that I didn't care all that much. "We knew about chimeras _before_ Phantom Planet, obviously. We know everything."

Oops, forgot. 'Chimera' is what their calling us half-ghosts, now. I was hoping I could leave that little detail out since I think it's stupid.

" _Zak_." Zak's parents beat me to it by a second.

"Wait. You _knew_ about me?" I didn't think anyone outside my family and friends knew.

"We started researching chimeras after that stunt you pulled in Antarctica. Dr. Grey was _very_ impressed. You're all she talked about for a good two weeks." Zak said "we" like he was a contributing member to the Secret Scientists.

Skulker was attacking a bunch of scientists in Antarctica a while ago. The scientists seemed to be researching quantum field generators, which Skulker for some reason was very interested in. Probably to give to Vlad. That was the first time I won using my still-sketchy duplication power.

 _They saw me?_

"Wait, you _knew_ I was Danny Phantom?"

Zak crossed his arms and grinned as if it was some sort of accomplishment. "Saw that episode."

My head filled with false ego, and I had the smile to prove it. "I have my own TV show?"

It was Doc who crushed my dreams. " _Weird World._ It's a show on 'rare and exotic creatures' that our maniac archenemy used to host." He then explained what exactly the Secret Scientists knew about me. "One of the scientists you saved in Antarctica was Dr. Miranda Grey, a Secret Scientist, like us Saturdays. That's how we found out that Danny _Fenton_ was a chimera. We'd never heard of Danny _Phantom_ until two days ago."

I'd seen a few episodes of the show before with Tucker. We had an argument once over whether the creatures Argost was talking about were real or not. With everything I'd seen in Elmerton, I guess Tucker was right.

"It'd be _soooo_ cool to have our own TV shows, though! Ours would be 'The Secret Scie' _–_ no, 'The Secret _Saturdays_ ', and yours…"

"The Adventures of Danny Fenton _._ " Hey, I thought it sounded kinda cool.

"How about just 'Danny Phantom'?"

 _It less of a mouthful, I'll give him that._

"Fine. Where are we going, anyway?"

"We're going to our place."

I was beginning to think Fiskerton could've offered better information than the 15-year-old boy. "Where's home," I expanded in a more annoyed tone.

What Zak said next was the probably first useful thing he'd said all day. "Well, now it's just called Zone 1."


	8. Chapter 8

**Let me know in a review what you thought! What do you think will happen next? I crave them reviews and my heart jumps into my throat every time I get one :D**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

After the War of the Cryptids (the cryptid uprising I mentioned earlier), the Saturdays relocated to Mount Rushmore. While they were rounding up all the misplaced cryptids the war caused, Sanctum came along and turned it into Zone 1. Current day Zone 2 was a 5-mile radius around some ancient Aztec Temple. Given that Amity Park's was only a month ago, I doubted there'd been more than 4 Zone Shifts. Yeah, they gave the actual remodeling a term, too. Don't ask me why.

Zak laid down next to me on his bed, arms up and behind his head. I envied how relaxed he looked, like he had nothing dragging him down, no one or no _thing_ he wished would just disappear.

He took a look at my phone. "Wow, 257 replays in the last month? You must really like that song. Kinda a weird name, if you asked me."

"Huh? Yeah." I'd only clearly heard the last part of what he said, but my brain filled the rest in after I slid my headphones down to my neck.

On my phone screen was a plain black square for album art, and a single word as the title. Memory.

"So, were you always a chimera?"

I figured I'd oblige to Zak's question. Maybe talking about it would help me sort this whole mess. "I had an accident with a ghost portal, and I woke up a ghost. I didn't have any sort of control over my powers, and they just kinda started springing up, turning me invisible without warning, etcetera. I didn't even think I was human anymore until I eventually changed back."

"Dude, that's awesome! I wish I could turn invisible! By invisible, do you mean pass through walls invisible, or camouflage invisible?"

 _How can you be so cheerful all the time?_ "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"You ask too many questions. Ask away, although I may choose not to answer."

 _Why you… "_ How can you be so cheerful all the time? I'm assuming you're not the stereotypical high schooler, being a Secret Scientist, and all."

I felt Zak's mood shift from joy to sorrow, and I wished I could've taken the question back.

He got up and sat at the edge of the bed kinda like Jazz did every morning, except Zak turned his face out of sight. "You wouldn't know because you haven't seen my powers, but I'm actually half-cryptid. There's the part of me that's Zak, and then there's the part that's the first ever dragon: Kur. Kur was a cryptid who could control other cryptids, and rampaged across the world for years without opposition. Kur was thought to be dead, until we found out I was Kur."

"How'd you find out," I asked.

"About my powers?"

I didn't care about how he'd found out about his powers, but I let him keep talking. It was the least I could do after making him sit through my explanation.

"We were out a mission investigating Dawuwaqa, the Fijian shark god. We found it, and it tried to eat Fisk. I got angry, and my powers awakened and calmed the shark down. We didn't know I was Kur until a year ago, though, when a Kur detecting artifact glowed in my presence."

Sam and Tucker tried to understand what it was like to live in my world, but never fully could. They weren't half-monster: half the very thing their parents despised. No one was. No one could relate to me. Or so we thought, until now.

"I'm surprised that big of a burden hasn't crushed you, yet." I realized I was being kind of a jerk, but I wasn't having the best of days, and wasn't really thinking things through.

"I used to be terrified of what I could do. Almost everyone, including me, thought I was destined for great evil. After we won the War, I thought I lost my powers, and I was overjoyed. A few months later, they came back, and it was hell all over again."

He took in another breath and answered my earlier question. "I'm always upbeat _because_ of the seriousness. It helps me forget how serious it actually is. It makes me feel better. When you joke about it, you don't panic, you make less mistakes, and when the time comes, you're able to do what you have to do."

I guess that's kinda what I've been doing all along with the puns. Now that I think about it, that was my defense mechanism, stopping me from acknowledging that I was fighting for my life. Then again, my opponents were the Box Ghost, or Johnny 13. "That's a load of bull."

Finally, Zak turned his face towards me, and I saw the smile I was secretly hoping was there all along. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that. Fly me up to the top floor."

I was tired of competing with Zak, so I just did as he said. My eyes flashed green, I grabbed him by his armpits, and flew up towards the ceiling. Zak seemed a little tense, which was understandable, since this was probably his first time flying through solid objects. I know I was when I first got my powers.


	9. Chapter 9

**Let me know in a review what you thought! What do you think will happen next? I crave them reviews and my heart jumps into my throat every time I get one :D**

 **Oh, BTW. This whole story is told from Danny's POV.**

* * *

Aside from me being on guard from the giant prehistoric bird nested not 5 feet from us, we sat there for around an hour doing nothing. Well, for the first fifteen minutes, Zak was showing me some 'music' he made by remixing cryptid noises he'd recorded, and then started talking about… I wasn't paying attention, so can't really say. So yeah, nothing.

I froze the air particles around my ears to stop Zak's voice from banging against my eardrums. I tried focusing on my nightmares, see if I could find a cause for them and, indirectly, a way to end them.

Sometimes at night, I'd lie awake staring into the ceiling fan, which the downstairs light just barely hit on its crawl up the steps, gently stroking whatever the cracked door let it. The room was relatively small, so the rays were enough to reach the center of the room.

I'd try my hardest to keep my eyes fixated on the fan as splotches of black gradually bubbled my vision.

I could hold it for a few seconds until my eyes twitched, and the color would return, only for me to try again and again until my eyes started to burn and I'd be forced to close them and fall asleep, or until Damon Grey called it a day and shut out the light. Whichever came first.

Zak got up all excited and opened what I first thought was just a window, being 100 feet above the ground and all.

A man with about the same physique as Doc flew up to the airship and almost landed on us. "What's up, mini-man, and..."

The new guy's expression turned from happy to assassin. That's when he tackled me. "Jurassic, run! Careful, Zak-man! It's Zak Monday in disguise. Just look at his eyes."

There were around twenty things going through my head at the time.

 _Who writes these names? Is there a Zak Friday? Are any of the potentially seven Zak's_ normal _? This guy needs deodorant._

I digress, again. I'd unfrozen the air around my ears, but didn't completely turn off my powers, so my eyes were still glowing green. _I have_ got _to stop leaving my powers on._

"Easy, Doyle! That's Danny. He's a chimera."

The line worked better on the gorilla. He reluctantly let me go and I could breathe again.

"I've got my eyes on you, bigger mini-man," threatened Doyle.

I was starting to get jealous of all the people that hadn't met Zak. "Uh-huh." I realized after the fact just showing him some of my powers would've eased his suspicions.

Zak brought us back on track. "So, did you bring it?"

 _Is this express delivery for a Secret Scientist?_

"Yeah, but the Amarok was a pain." Doyle pulled out a small object wrapped in cloth from his handbag.

"This one's on Danny," said Zak as he unwrapped what appeared to be glasses.

"Wait, what?" No way I was paying for something I didn't order. Especially after the delivery guy pinned me to the ground.

Almost as if Zak read my mind, he explained. "This is my uncle, Doyle, by the way."

My gaze shifted to the object in Zak's hand.

"This is one of the artifacts Fisk and I found on Ellef Ringnes. Mom called them Crystal Glasses. They're supposed to let you see into the future."

"How far ahead?" _Please say ten years, please say ten years._

"Well, no one's been able to actually use them because they're supposed to be what keeps an Amarok asleep." Zak said that without a hint of worry.

I wasn't too fond of mystical artifacts after how much fun the Reality Gauntlet was, but I figured this _Amarok_ was kept asleep for a reason, and wanted the glasses returned as soon as possible. I snatched the glasses from Zak's hand and put them on.


	10. Chapter 10

_Pitch black. The only light came from black high-tech battle armor illuminated from the inside by a green ectoplasmic entity. Skulktech._

 _"Hello," started Skulker._

 _"Ghost child," Technus finished._

 _Then, I heard Danielle's voice, yelling my name._

"Danny? DANNY!"

I woke up to Zak incessantly calling my name. "WHAT?" I expected to hit a ceiling. I didn't.

My eyes were sore. I grabbed the nearest towel and dabbed the sweat off my face.

"You looked like you were having a nightmare."

 _Déjà vu._

"What happened?"

"You passed out after putting the glasses on. I guess they make you _dream_ the future."

That's the last thing I wanted to hear. _I have to find Danielle. If anything happens to her…_

"I have to find my cousin. She's a half-ghost, like me."

After a moment of thought, "Well, one of the things I can do is communicate with cryptids, no matter where in the world they are. Can you do anything like that, but with ghosts?"

"I have a ghost sense, which lets me know if there's a ghost around, but it'll take forever to track her down."

Zak had a look that said _I thought you'd never ask_. Well, I didn't ask. He pulled out his bamboo…sword…thing like it was show-and-tell time. "This is _The Claw._ And THIS is the Hand of Tsul 'Kalu." The way he held it, you'd expect a bird to fly out of it any second.

I looked around. There was no one else in the room, so either he was still talking to me, or that Claw was scratching his brain more than that Hand was giving him a hand. _Is this how idiotic I looked every time I yelled "Going ghost"?_ I dismissed that as an intrusive thought. I looked boss when I did that.

Looked like a regular old paw to me. _Heck, I'll bite._ "Go on."

"The Hand is another artifact. It enhances anything mystical." He blinked, and his eyes started glowing orange. Almost instantaneously, the three fangs of the Claw, which were previously clenched in a fist, relaxed and started glowing orange, as well.

Zak pointed the stick at the door.

Komodo started moonwalking into the room, eyes glowing orange, as well.

The glow in their eyes and on the hand diminished.

"The Claw amplifies and helps me control my powers. If you concentrate, maybe it can do something with your ghost sense? Help you find your cousin?"

It was worth a shot. I'd always wanted to see what my powers were capable of when used to the max. This might be my only chance at it. Well, without waiting ten years.

It was heavier than Zak made it out to be, maybe because I was still laying down holding it above me. The rod itself, which looked like plastic from afar, was actually metal. I expected it to be lopsided, but it was actually well-balanced, probably because of the serpent's head at the end opposite the Hand.

Nothing happened at first. I tried focusing on my ghost sense. There was a shift – no, a _surge_ of energy inside my body. The claw relaxed its fangs like it did when Zak used his powers, and started glowing blue.

Almost immediately after that, I heard a voice in my head.

 _Danny! You need to find a way into the Ghost Zone._

"Danny? You've been standing there for like 2 minutes, now. Anything?"

"Huh? Yeah." _It's that voice from before._ "I need to get into the Ghost Zone."

"I'm guessing it's not as easy as finding a mirror, huh," Zak asked hopefully rhetorically.

I tried concentrating on a different power, the closest one to some sort of spatial tunneling ability like Wulf's and Dan's. _Maybe my ghost ray?_

I raised my free hand and charged it with ectoplasmic energy. The glow on the claw turned green.

 _Yes! Maybe Zak and I can get along, after all._

Thought too soon.

"Uh, Danny?" Zak saw the fluctuating glow of my hand and could probably tell that it wasn't supposed to be that erratic.

The Claw started resisting me. I wasn't sure if I should've been focusing on the Claw, or the hand building up ectoplasm, so I went for the free hand. That was a terrible idea. Ectoplasm started building up like guys to Paulina and shot out of my hand, cutting clean into everything from that room to the airship based 2 floors above us. I hoped there weren't any planes flying around the area at the time.

The sound of the spectral energy cutting into several layers of reinforced metal rang for a few seconds before it dissipated, paving way for the sound of the ticking clock and my rampaging heart.

We turned to each other, faces flushed with fear, and counted down. "3…2…1…"

Doc Saturday slammed the doors open, and I had the sudden urge to fight my evil older self.


	11. Chapter 11

It's been a while since I updated this story. I have a lot going on right now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read!

* * *

Doc seemed surprisingly okay with what he had told him, until we mentioned Doyle had been here. Apparently, he and Doyle weren't on good terms because he'd been grumbling 'Every time he stops by, he makes a mess' as he stormed out of the room.

Doc stopped at the door and turned to Zak. "This is coming out of your allowance."

"But dad, it was –"

I tackled Zak and put my hand over his mouth. No way was Zak telling him it was all _my_ fault.

Right as he said that, there was a thud on the ceiling, followed by a slightly lighter thud.

Zak licked my hand to get it off of his mouth. "Uh, dad? Someone's knocking on the… ceiling," commented Zak, observant as ever.

"Eww, cryptid spit!"

The thudding stopped, and another cryptid dropped down from the newly installed ceiling doors. Something told me he wasn't a delivery boy. It looked like what bigfoot would look like, except armed with a bow and arrow.

 _A hunter? Is this the cryptid version of Skulker?_

I wasn't going to let him hurt anyone. I charged up another ghost ray.

"Danny, no!"

Doc's warning was too late. I blasted him through the door.

"Danny, that's Tsul 'Kalu," reiterated Zak for Doc.

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" Then it hit me. I looked down at the bamboo…sword…thing in my hand: more specifically the paw part. _The Hand of Tsul 'Kalu._

I looked back up at the creature, which was staring into my soul, waiting for me to make a move. _If this thing has_ Doc _all shaken up…_ I grinned. My heartrate skyrocketed. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through me, followed by ectoplasm as I charged my fists up for an energy strike. Zak's Claw, which was still clenched in my right hand, reacted to me, and started glowing green, as well. It'd been a long time since I could go all out.

Zak got in the way, again. "Danny, stop! Tsul 'Kalu is an ally. He must have sensed someone besides me used the Claw, and thought I was in danger."

Zak's words fell on deaf ears. "I don't care. If Tsul 'Kalu is as tough as you guys make him out to be, then bring it on. I've got a lot of pent up anger I'd like to let out."

The cryptid accepted my declaration of war, got up, and went into a have-at-me stance ninjas do in the movies.

I raised my arm, palm facing the towel I'd used earlier, and poltergeisted it into Tsul 'Kalu's face. I was hoping it would cover his face long enough for me to strike, but he just sliced the towel in half with an arrow. Luckily, that was still enough of a distraction to let me gain on him. I imagined he was Tucker and landed a punch. _That felt awesome!_

Tsul 'Kalu took it well. I'd tell you how I extended a helping hand for the beat-up cryptid, but I'd be lying. I kicked him. He went flying down the hallway and landed outside Saturday HQ. _That's for Kwan stealing my best friend from me!_

Again, Tsul 'Kalu quickly regained his composure and pulled out a flute.

I was having so much fun my thoughts started getting cocky. _What's he gonna do, lullaby me to sleep?_

He blew into it, and it let out a disarming high-pitched melody which brought me down my knees, head swelling with pain.

 _Oh._

It too most of my energy to stand back up again. My legs felt like they could fail any moment now, and I once again had a terrible headache. "I think I liked the cryptid mix better."

The cryptid started charging towards me.

I imagined Dan Phantom was standing in front of me, clenched my fists, and took a deep breath.

"Here's a melody of my own!" I let out my Ghostly Wail. I forgot I was still holding the Claw, which amplified the sonic waves and tossed Tsul 'Kalu like he was a skipping stone.

The Wail only made the headache worse. The pain felt physical, so I made a crystal and angled it so I could see if any part of my face was broken. The bags under my eyes had receded a little. My eyes were still glowing green, so that Ghostly Wail must've been all the Claw, and none of my own strength, which was good for me. Up until then, if the Wail didn't end the fight, I was screwed.

"Dude. You've got some serious anger management issues."

I wasn't sure if Zak was commenting on the Ghostly Wail, or the heavy puffing I was doing after letting out all my frustration. The two of us walked up to the cryptid lying 10 feet ahead of us.

Tsul' Kalu raised his hand, which I'm guessing was warrior for 'I surrender'. I extended that helping hand and propped the hunter up to his feet.

Doc came running up to us. Doyle had called about Ellef Ringnes.

"You boys need to return those glasses, _now_. The storms on Ellef Ringnes are getting worse by the minute."

"You want a jacket? It'll be pretty cold," Zak offered me almost mockingly.

I wasn't giving in to his ridicule. "I have freezing powers. I think I'll be fine."


	12. Chapter 12

By the time we got to Ellef Ringnes, it was already morning and the blinding sunlight against the white snow didn't bode well for our vision. The storms here made hail feel like a light shower, and the 70 miles-an-hour winds didn't exactly make the place any cozier, either. I was shivering so much I was surprised my teeth didn't start a fire, or break.

Five minutes would've been enough to make Frostbite beg to be brought back to the warmth that was the Realm of the Far Frozen. We'd been trekking through it for the past half an hour.

"How much longer until we get there?" I could barely hear my own feet as I trooped through all the snow. I hoped Zak could hear me.

"We can't be that far! The storm is strongest where the Amarok is!"

"That means we're close to Amarok, not to the burial mound!" Somehow, I felt this storm wouldn't be as disarming to the Amarok as it was to us. Not the most comforting thought given that it kinda hated us for stealing its glasses.

"Quit worrying so much! I've been here before! We're _definitely_ close to the burial mound!"

 _THERE'S WHITE ALL AROUND US! HOW CAN YOU TELL?_ I kept that to myself. I've learned through repetition that arguing with that guy was useless.

After maybe another ten minutes of trotting, I yelled out to Zak. "How much farther do you think we'll need to walk?"

No response.

"Zak?" Right after I said that, I walked into a cave wall. Thankfully, the neck pain was almost gone, by then. "Zak, I think I found it!" _Maybe he can't hear me?_

I walked against the wall until I found an opening to a cave. _Shelter from the storm._

I sat there for a few minutes waiting for Zak. Nothing. We'd been separated.

My heart was racing. I wasn't worried about Mr. I've-been-here-before. I was worried for myself. I had no idea where I was. There was a monster out there. _Would my ghost powers work against it?_ I'd never fought anything that wasn't ghost or human. For all I knew, cryptids might not be affected by ectoplasm. It could just be goop to them.

 _Calm down._ Remember what Mom always told you.

I had to keep moving. _Maybe this cave is the burial mound? I just have to find the_ mound _part._

The place was almost entirely made out of ice, like it was just a huge iceberg at one point, and something carved it into what it was now. The entire place had blue glow, like there was some liquid trapped inside. I know what you're thinking. No, it wasn't water.

My heart rate fell, and I felt something touch me. _Oh, Zak. Thank goodness._

I turned around to face him. Or not. A tall, wolf stood where I thought my regrettable comrade would be.

It opened its mouth to growl at me. I'd tell you what it sounded like, but I was twenty feet into the cavern running for my life before I could hear it, any noise masked by my own yelling. The walls of the cavern started shaking, like the Amarok had a Cryptidly Wail, or the ability to generate earthquakes.

I frantically looked around to see if there was anything I could hide to lose the Amarok and take cover over in case the ceiling collapsed. _That's it. The ceiling!_

I charged up a light ghost ray and aimed for the ceiling. Part of the stiff snow melted and made way for the snow above to come crashing down, creating a wall behind me.

I ran into two, maybe three forks, not caring which path to take before I reached a large area with mounds of snow topped with artifacts like cherry on a cake. _These must be the burial mounds! Great!_

Zak came running in through a different entrance after hearing my panting. "Danny! What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I ignored his attempt at a pun. Gasping for breath, I mustered "Am – Ama – rok."

"You know what an Amarok looks like?"

I could respond without stuttering after taking a few seconds, but the words still stuck to the back of my throat. "Are there many other weird creatures living around here?!"

Zak smiled sheepishly. "So, what now, we wait for it to find us?"

"No need to wait." I pointed at the entrance I came in from.

My wall did little to slow the man-wolf down. The Amarok came charging in on all fours.

I covered my head with my arms and shut my eyes, expecting it to pounce me. Nothing happened.

The Amarok just stood there, eyes glowing orange. Zak had just saved my live.

"Easy, big guy. I've got your glasses right here," teased Zak, waving the Crystal Glasses in the air. He walked backwards until he reached a donut of snow and stepped aside, making way for the Amarok to walk into the donut. Zak covered the top with snow, placed the artifact back on top, and released his influence on the cryptid.

 _A pile of snow and a pair of glasses are enough to keep an earthquake-causing man-wolf at bay?_ I didn't question the good fortune any further.

"That was awesome," I yelled. "Let's _never_ do that again. Your powers were a lot stronger than back in your room. I mean, your whole body was glowing orange, this time."

"This is a mystic hotspot. My powers actually _are_ stronger here than usual."

I thought for a moment. _If this place enhances powers, then…_ "Give me your Claw. I wanna try opening a portal here."

Zak reluctantly handed his bamboo…sword…thing over. "Try not to cave us in." There wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The moment I touched the Claw, the actual claw part started glowing green, and my entire body followed. It felt different from back in Zak's room. This energy was far more potent, coursing through my entire body rather than just my hand.

I raised my hand and tried visualizing a portal opening in front of me. The glow turned red, and a red and black portal showed up in front of me, sucking the two of us in before closing behind us.

 _That was easy… Wait. Where…_

There were no floating balls of green ectoplasm; there wasn't anything green, at all. This _definitely_ wasn't the Ghost Zone. This was… Amity Park. In ruins.

Looking around, it seemed to have been that way for a while. I tried picking up an asphalt rock next to me, but it just crumbled into powder on touch. The air current blew the powder into my face and I stumbled back into Zak.

"Uh, Danny?" Zak tapped on my shoulder and pointed behind us.

A teal-skinned man with fiery white hair had just fallen from the sky. He wore a black jumpsuit with a white 'Y' shape stretched across the torso. In the center of the Y, the same stylized "D" that sported on mine.


	13. Chapter 13

Dark Danny was looking up in the sky. Following his gaze let to a buff dude with wings coming out of his back. He _definitely_ didn't have the majesty to be an angel, and if he was attacking evil me, then he wasn't a demon, no matter _how_ well be looked the part, so I'm just gonna call him owl-man.

"Zenith never lies," said the owl-man to evil me. "A space-rift was just opened here. Given …"

Someone interrupted owl-man's sentence.

" _Salutations, et_ welcome _, visiteurs!_ " There was another tall man directly below the owl-man. I didn't notice him earlier because his outfit camouflaged with the Amity wreckage around us. He was in a red/black cloak and had white hair, kinda like ponytails, protruding from the sides of his white face. With that one sentence, the owl-man and Dark Danny turned their attention to us.

"Argost," commented Zak. A moment later, Zak looked up at the creature floating above. "Munya?"

Argost started walking up to us. On closer inspection, his face seems to be a mask. Unless he got surgery to turn his eyes into upside-down oblique isosceles triangles.

"Daniel?" This might as well have been a dream, because the next thing he did was _extremely_ out of character. He ran up to me… and hugged me. "You're alive?!"

If I had to choose between getting tackled by Fiskerton, or hugged by an evil maniac… "What?! Let _go_ of me!"

Again, out of character, he did as he was told and stepped back.

He then turned to Zak and pinned him to the ground. "Careful, Daniel. He and his family are wanted criminals the world over," he said, eyes fixated on Zak.

"Zak?" _He couldn't be a criminal if he tried._

Evil me turned to me confused. He glanced at Zak's Claw in my hand.

"You're not from this dimension, are you?" Dark Danny let go of Zak.

"We're in the Shadow World," added Zak, still on the ground, as if that was supposed to clear everything up. Although, he seemed to have just realized that himself.

I looked up to what Zak was looking at. A red crescent moon where the Sun should have been. The stars in the sky were also shades of red, although, that might just have been because of the moon.

My turn for everything to click. "Smoke mirror dimension?"

"Mhm."

My gaze shifted to the Phantom looming over Zak. His turn for introductions. "Anyway, what happened to you…me…you know what I mean."

" _Je pense qu'il nous a oubliés_. Tragedy!"

"Shut it, Vincent." Munya transformed back into a still-buff human, which shocked me, regrettably. Munya had the wow factor that I coveted.

Good Evil-Me stole our attentions. "I used to be Vlad Plasmius. _This_ dimension's Daniel Phantom was an evil mastermind who destroyed his human half under the notion that it was dragging him down. Daniel unleashed a ghostly disease that, although was nothing more than the common flu to ghosts, was very lethal to humans, including half-humans, like myself. He needed my powers to be able to survive so, in order to save me, he fused with my ghost half, consequently spitting out my human self, which, along with the citizens of Amity Park, perished. My good side overwhelmed him and created me."

 _So, this dimension is opposite in every way. Our Future Me was evil, so this one is good. But if the original me was evil, then does that mean the real future me is still good?_

I was so relieved to hear that.

 _I wonder…_

"What do you know about the Ghost Zone?" I thought, since we were able to get to this flip dimension from ours, maybe we could get to the normal Ghost Zone through an opposite one.

"There are two 'ghost zones', just as there are two of this dimension. While our dimensions are made of matter and anti-matter, the Ghost Zone and Spirit World are made of ecto-matter and endo-matter, respectively."

The good thing about Zak and I having scientists for parents is we both understood what Dan was saying. Sadly, it was all information we didn't need.

"Can you open a portal to the Spirit World? I'm hoping I can reach the Ghost Zone from there. There's someone I need to find." I didn't mean to cut off Dan's explanation, but we were racing against time.

"I _could_ just open a portal straight to the Ghost Zone, if that's your end goal."

My eyes lit up, which was all the answer Good Evil-Me needed.

He turned to Munya. "May I?"

"Fine," grumbled Frankenstein.

Shadow Me raised his hand and opened up a portal into the Ghost Zone.

 _I have_ got _to learn how to do that._

" _Temps de l'aventure!"_ Vincent… Argost… I'm gonna call him Virginia, vigorously clapped his hands in excitement, awaiting Munya's approval.

"Come back before moondown," replied Munya.

Clearly that was the first time Virginia had walked through a dimensional rift because he was bracing for impact the whole time, kinda like when you first turn on the shower and expect cold water.

And with that, another happy camper was added to the group. Yay. I thought that day couldn't get any worse.

That's when something hit me – literally.


	14. Chapter 14

I woke up to yells that _weren't_ my name. I wasn't sure if that was a 'Thank god,' or an 'Oh god.'

Sadly, it was the latter. As I peeled my eyes open from what was ironically the best sleep I'd had in weeks, the blurry lights turned into a familiar ceiling: Walker's Prison.

The ceiling didn't look like it belonged to a prison cell. The echoes made the place feel much too spacious for one, as well. Against my back, I could feel wood. There was a wall next to me, which meant I was near the edge of the room: the perfect place to be to not draw attention to yourself.

Adapted to waking up not knowing where I was, I searched the yells for any familiar voices before getting up. Among them were Skulker's and Ember's. The two ghosts seemed to be rallying, meaning neither of the two voices went over the other. _Lover's_ _quarrel?_ They seemed too preoccupied to have noticed my presence, which was probably good for me, so I saved the disgust for later. The Box Ghost was also among the mob.

That's when I heard the two words I dreaded the most.

"Ghost Child."

I hadn't heard the entire sentence, but Technus had noticed my presence. Judging by the volume and echo of the voice, I'd say he was around where Skulker and Ember were.

I was able to decode all of this as calm as I did because my mom had taught me basic skills of spies when I was ten years old.

 _Wait. Where's…_ I did the single crunch we'd all been waiting for. "Zak!"

And my incognito status went down the drain. I might as well have yelled 'Look at me! I'm Danny Phantom!'

"Relax, dude. I'm right here," said a voice to the far left of my bench.

Sure enough, the joker with skunk hair was just sitting there his usual self, cocky grin and all. Virginia was with him, as well, admiring his Claw.

Although every ghost in the mess hall _did_ turn their heads towards me, none of them started attacking me. I've learned not to question the good things in life, so moving on. "Why am I not surprised that you get along swimmingly with the criminally insane?"

"You're hilarious. Well, look who else I get along with? Her jumpsuit looks like yours, so I'm guessing this is that cousin you were talking about," Zak said as he stepped aside. Sure enough, my 15-year old cousin stood wide smiled, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.

There was another guy with her. The same one that was supposed to have been blown up in Elmerton. I was too overjoyed at the sight of Danielle to care, though.

"Danielle!" I ran up to her and gave her a hug that probably would've killed her, had she not already been half-ghost. "I'm so glad you're safe." Apparently tears of joy are contagious.

We told each other what had happened in our time apart. Dani doesn't remember how she got to Walker's Prison, let alone the Ghost Zone. "One minute I was in Amity Park and the next I was dreaming about some cyan ghost with a clock for a chest, and woke up here."

"Hey, check this out!" Zak stuck his hand into the wall. "We can walk through these walls! This isn't a very good prison."

An obnoxious, deep, cowboy-esque voice interrupted my thought process. "You did not just _wake up_ in this prison. No prisoner of mine wakes up here without knowing _why_. That's against the rules."

Walker slammed the double doors to the mess hall open, which scared Virginia so much he leaped across the room and onto Skulker.

"Well, here's your _wakeup call_ you stubborn towel of filth," yelled a woman from out in the hallway.

 _I know that voice._ "Mom?!" I was fully prepared for it to have been someone else, and look like an idiot.

Right on cue, my mom stabbed Walker in the back with a dark gray hoverboard shaped kinda like Valerie's.

 _When did she get that?_

"Oh hi, Danny! I'll get back to you in a minute." She lost no momentum after hit-and-running the ghost warden, and continued on her path to Skulker and Technus.

I looked down at me body yet again to make sure I was still Danny Phantom. I was.

By the time Mom reached them, Walker had really gotten up. "Why is it that every time you make an appearance, ghost boy, my prison turns into a war zone?"

Virginia felt threatened by my mom speeding towards him, jumped off of Skulker, and pinned Walker to the ground.

"It's called being a party animal. A must-have for any party," I spat back, firing my ghost ray at him and knocking him unconscious.

"Thank you, Maddie," praised Skulker after recomposing himself.

I remembered who I was standing next to and turned to my mom. "What's going on? How are you here? How do you know Skulker?" I couldn't believe my eyes, ears, or anything. I figured I must've been in one of Nocturn's dreams.

"Zak, pinch me."

Mom placed her hands on my shoulders. "Now Danny, I know you're confused, and you've been through so much, but right now, we just need to get out of here."

She wasn't surprised to see me in the least. Did she know I was here, too? Or did I do something to upset the Ghost of Wow Factor?

In unison, Zak and Danielle yelled "We're with Danny, too!"

My mom glanced at the two with a smile, then turned back to me as I started talking again.

"I'm sorry I never told you about my involvement with ghosts. I thought you'd hate me if you ever found out, having dedicated your life to hunting ghosts, and all."

"Oh, sweetie! True, you may be part ghost, but you're also part human, and more importantly, you're 100% my son. I could never hate you. That goes for your father, too. Besides, from what I've heard from Clockwork, you've been a pain in the butt for ghosts in your own unique way!"

 _Clockwork?_

I heard Danielle think the same thing.

 _He's the one who locked me in this prison._

I glanced over to her.

 _Wanna give Clockwork a visit_?

A small smile formed at the edge of her lips.

 _Nothing would make me happier._

Zak hopped onto Mom's hoverboard. Dani and I each took one of Virginia's arms, and flew off the same way mom broke in. Mom had handed Skulker a hoverboard, and the ghost hunter and his girlfriend followed us.

"Do I still get to pinch him?"

"You won't lay a finger on him." Mom's tone was threateningly cheerful.

"Hey, mom? Can we go see Clockwork? I need to tell him something."


	15. Chapter 15

The medieval floating cement grandfather clock with sectors of gears protruding from each side. The ghostly green glow and warm resonance. Clockwork's Tower looked the same as when it did the last time I was here. Then again, everything in the ghost zone had the last two.

Standing in the doorway was the Master of Time himself.

The cyan ghost's face was covered by his purple cloak, as usual, but I could still hear him let out a sigh. "Is it too much to ask for you to make an appointment?"

I let go of Virginia, much to his disappointment. He'd been yelling ' _Est comme une magie!_ ' every five minutes on our flight here, so I was glad to be rid of him for the time being.

"Oh, please. You have all the time in the world," I snapped back.

Clockwork smirked. "The fact that you're here means you want something from me, correct? Don't answer that. I already know why you're here."

I remembered I had unanswered questions. I let Zak and Clockwork talk for a bit and turned to my mom.

"Where's Dad?"

"Oh, he's out somewhere wreaking havoc trying to catch ghosts," my mom replied rather annoyed.

 _That's so like him._ I was a little disappointed, but I'd seen enough orange jumpsuits over the past couple of days, I let it slide.

Clockwork's turn for interrogation.

"Did you know there's an anti-matter dimension opposite of the human world called the Shadow World?"

"My sister is the Master of Space, so yes. I knew about it," the Time Ghost finished. "Anything else you'd like to ask me?"

"Why'd you lock Danielle up in Walker's Prison?"

"All the players in my little stage act needed to be their proper places."

That confirmed my suspicions. Clockwork _knew_ I would end up in the Ghost Zone, better yet, in Walker's Prison. _He_ brought my parents and Danielle into the Ghost Zone, thus saving them. He knew my search for Danielle, as well as my interacting with her here in the Ghost Zone, would bring me to Long Now.

There was still one thing that didn't make sense to me.

"Why didn't you just save them and bring them home?"

"Because your loved ones weren't the only ones that needed saving, now were they?"

It took a moment, but I finally figured it out. The other person that needed saving was myself. And maybe even Zak. We both had a lot of power in our hands; we both had that fear that we would become evil in the future. We both needed the assurance that a future path of terror was not what Clockwork had in store for us.

* * *

And this ends this story. I hope you enjoyed it!

Yeah, the ending was kinda abrupt... I didn't really know how to end this.


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